When Employees ‘Do No Evil,’ Google Fires Them
The company is being sued by former employees for breaching its famous (and now removed) code of conduct
Despite adopting the mantra “Don’t Be Evil” as part of its company code of conduct for the best part of 20 years, it appears Google is guilty of being evil now and again. This should come as no surprise — very few behemoth-sized companies are squeaky clean when the hood is lifted — and if it has, well, I’ll have what you’re drinking.
The earth-shattering revelation comes as three former employees sued the company for wrongfully terminating their contracts because they spoke out about Google’s failings to follow the policy. The ‘evil’ in question is the company’s decision to pursue controversial projects, including work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration. The employees felt entitled to call out the move as it reflected poorly on their own work, and did so via a widely shared and supported petition. In response, Google fired the engineers in November 2019 for violating the company’s data security policies, alleging that the employees leaked information (all three deny this). In the immediate aftermath, one of the engineers was defiant, saying, “everyone has a right to know what their work is being used for.”
